Often bed covers are used over a mattress of a bed so that a user of the bed can sleep under the bed covers when resting upon the mattress. Such bed covers typically include a sheet and blanket, and often multiple such blankets. To keep warm, it is desirable to have the bed covers held to the bed, typically by tucking ends of the bed covers, other than those at the head end of the bed, under the mattress. In this way, air under the bed covers is substantially trapped and can warm up somewhat and provide an insulative effect to keep the space beneath the bed covers warm.
On beds with a smaller mattress, or where the user is particularly tall, the user's feet are near the foot end of the bed. When the bed covers, especially the sheet, are tucked under the mattress tightly at the foot end of the bed, the user can have difficulty sleeping on the user's back with the toes of the user's feet pointing upwards. Insufficient clearance space is provided for the feet to extend upwardly in such an orientation. Hence, users often have to resort to sleeping on their sides or stomach, or otherwise transitioning to a less than optimal body position.
One optional solution to this problem is for the user to loosen the sheets sufficiently so that the feet can still point upwards and the sheet merely is routed up over the toes of the feet. In such a configuration the sheet and bed covers provide a significant amount of pressure down on the toes of the feet of the user. For some users, such weight of the bed covers on the toes of the feet can be uncomfortable or even painful. Such pain and discomfort can lead to disruption of sleep. For certain individuals, such as those suffering from neurological conditions that cause the toes of the feet to be particularly sensitive, or who are recovering from injuries involving the feet, the pain associated with sheets contacting the toes can be severe.
Accordingly, a need exists for a lifting device which can lift the bed covers adjacent the foot of the bed up sufficient to provide a clearance space beneath the bed covers and above the mattress, so that the feet of the user can be in any orientation without impacting the bed covers. Such a lift would beneficially be deployable and retractable between a raised position and a lowered position so that the bed covers can remain flat on the mattress when the user is not sleeping. Then, when the user comes to sleep in the bed, the lift can be activated to elevate the bed covers adjacent the foot of the bed from the lowered position to the raised position and the user can then enjoy sleeping on the bed with clearance for the user's feet.
At least two attempts to support sheets above a mattress of a bed are known in the prior art. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 2,598,265 to Pelton and U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,614 to Reinhard. Significant differences exist between these prior art sheet lifting tools and the invention described herein. One such distinction relates to the position of the device when in a collapsed orientation. With both Reinhard and Pelton, portions of the device rest upon the mattress when the device is not in use. Often it is desirable to elevate the sheets after a patient or other sleeping individual is already resting upon the bed and experiences foot discomfort. In other instances, it may be desirable to lower the sheet lifting structure after the patient is in the bed. The prior art devices to Pelton and Reinhard fail to provide such avoidance of the foot resting region, but rather collapse down into the foot resting region so that these devices are only effective in their collapsed position when no one is sleeping on the bed.